Twitter Provides Auto Captions for All Video Uploads in Tweets

This is a sneaky big addition – today Twitter has it announced that automatic subtitles are enabled for all videos uploaded in tweets, which gives users more options to consume video content in the app.

As explained by Twitter, all of today’s videos attached to tweets will have auto-subtitles enabled. Subtitles are enabled for muted in-stream videos on both iOS and Android, while desktop users can toggle them on and off at will.

Twitter’s automatic subtitles are available in 37 languages, and although translation is not yet available, the subtitles will be displayed in the language of the device that was used to upload the clip.

Another major drawback is that Twitter’s automatic subtitles cannot be edited at this point. Both translation and editing tools are still under development.

The announcement is the latest advancement in Twitter’s accessibility features, which got a boost with the announcement of last year two new internal teams focuses on ensuring optimal benefit for all users. It did so after the company was criticized for launching audio tweets with no subtitle option, which helped Twitter see the need for a more engaged focus on its front.

Twitter has also announced automatic subtitles for voice tweets last year (in which it started testing July), while automatic subtitles are also available for Spaces.

But automatic subtitles in regular videos can be the biggest step yet. And as from TechCrunch, it could be especially valuable on Twitter’s too redesigned tab “Explore”, which is currently under test and presents tweets in a more TikTok-like full-screen format with vertical scrolling.

The advantage of subtitles in this format is that users can enjoy more types of content. While the bulk of the regular Twitter feed is mostly focused on text, this updated format is more visually targeted, and subtitles could play a key role in adjusting evolving engagement behavior in that regard.

It is a good supplement that will have a significant impact for many users. Another important potential benefit could be in categorization and data, as Twitter can use auto-generated captions to understand interaction behavior and provide more insight into user interests.

Twitter hasn’t hinted yet that this will be a caption use case, but the expanded considerations could also be beneficial.

As Twitter notes, auto-subtitles now appear in muted videos on iOS and Android, while you can tap the CC button on the desktop to see the auto-subtitle text too. You can read more about Twitter’s various automatic captioning tools here.